Blood and Treasure: Captives, Smugglers, and the Slave Ship, ‘Wildfire”

Introducing the C.V Starr Center’s new deputy director: Ted Maris-Wolf! Maris-Wolf’s talk about nearly three thousand enslaved Africans who were seized from slave ships by the U.S. Navy illuminates a crucial moment in history, when an otherwise indifferent president launched the nation’s strongest-ever attack on the international slave trade.

Maris-Wolf, who will join the Starr Center full-time in May, is currently Assistant Professor of History at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. His work has focused on law, race, and the idea of freedom in 19th century America, as well as on runaway slave communities, the transatlantic slave trade, and the threads of history and memory that connect the United States with the Caribbean and West Africa.

One of the most persistent of the myths that Americans tell themselves about race is that the line between black and white is a matter of genetics rather than choice. Law professor and historian Daniel ...

David Campbell’s study of America’s religious attitudes and institutions has revealed a surprising mix of polarization and tolerance. Offering a mix of historical sweep and detailed narrative, American Grace follows the decline of religious observance ...